Toy railway



Patented Fe. 5, i924.

ALAN n. rnaeussoiv, or BUFFALO, New Yoan.

roY RAILWAY.

@riginal application filed .Tuly 22, 1922, Serial No. 576,656. Patent No. 1,457.771, dated June 5, 1923.

Divided and this application led April 5, 1923.

To all whom t may concer/n.

Be it known that I, ALAN R. FERcUssoN,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of c New York, have invented certain new and useful `Improvements in Toy Railways, of

which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to toy tracks or toy railways, and is a division of my copending application for a toy railway, filed July 22, 1922, Serial No. 576,656, which issued in Patent No. 1,457,771, June 5, 1923. An object of this invention is to provide an improved toy railway structure which will be strong, durable and serviceable in use and yet which, by virtue of the present novel structure may be constructed at a minimum of expense.

.A furtherA object of this invention is to provide a sectional toy railway wherein the ends of the rails of the several sections may be quickly and eiiiciently joined and held in` alinement in an improved manner, in the present instance this being obtained by the formation of substantially a resilient or spring joint.

A further object of this invention is to provide a toy railway having wire formed rails, and wherein the side faces of the wire rails are rolled out to form inwardly extending concave faces, this construction increasing the height of the rails without at the same time requiring a larger wire or morematerial, and also enabling the juxtaposed ends of a pair of rails to be readily connected together by means of connecting members extending into concave faces of the rails. V

Other objects of this invention will appear in the following description and ap pended claims, lreference being had t0 the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in the several views and wherein Fig. 1 is a plan view partly broken away illustrating my invention; Fig. 2 Yis an end sectional view of a wire rail; Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view thereof; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a form of filler or clamping block, Fig. 5 is a perspective view partly Serial No. 629,960.

in section illustrating a manner in which the juxtaposed ends of a pair of rails may be connected together; and Fig. 6 is a detail section illustrating the use of the forni shown in Fig. 4.

Before explaining in detail the present improvement and mode of operation thereof, I desire to have it understood that the invention is not limited to the details of construction and arrangement of parts which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of other embodiments, and that the phraseology which I employ is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

In the preferred form shown herein and described, the present invention in general preferably comprises a plurality 'of toy track sections adapted to be releasably 7 joined together to form a complete railway, the sections being readily detached or released one from another to form a knock down portable structure, Each section pref erably comprises spaced wire formed ties and spaced wire formed rails secured to the ties as by spot welding. The juxtaposed ends of a pair of wire rails of adjacent sections are releasably connected together so as to form a tension or spring joint, this being accomplished in the present invention by means of an improved clamping device secured to one of the rails to form an extension thereof and adapted to be detachably connected to an adjacent rail.

Referring to Fig. 1 it will be seentha't l each of the adjacent track sections 9 and 10 comprises spaced wire formed ties 11, and mounted upon the several ties of each section are a pair of spaced wire formed rails 12. Each of the wire rails 12 in their original form is cylindrical and may be of any suitable gage or diameter. A pair of opposed convexside faces of each wire rail are rolled in any suitable manner so as to provide a pair of opposed grooved, channeled. or concave faces 13 and 14. The rolling of the concave faces 13 and 14 increases the height of the rails without at the same time requiring a larger wire or more material so that as a result of this construction, where it is necessary to provide a rail 'of given height, a wire of smaller diameter may be utilized, thus greatly decreasing the cost of manufacture.

It will be seen from the foregoing construction that each wire rail is provided with opposed concave faces 13 and 14, and with top and bottom curved or convex faces 15 and 16 which latter in the process of manui facture may be interchangeably used for the connection of either of said faces to the ties. The convex face 15 also provides an effective traction surface for the wheels of the. toy train.

In joining the free ends of a pair of juxtaposed rails 12, one, pair of the rail ends as 17 may each be provided with a section or iiller block 18 projecting beyond the end of the rail, and which block or clamping member may be formed by sawing in twol a round wire, or in any other suitable manner, so that the curved face 19 will fit into the concave or channeled side face of the end rail 17 as shown in Figs. 2 and 5. Referring to Figs. 4 and 6 it will be seen that the filler block or clamp may be stamped or formed out of sheet metal so as to have a convex face 19 adapted to fit into the concave face 13. IThe segmental `section 18"L or 18 as the case may be, is preferably spot welded at 20 to the-,rail end 17 and forms substantially a guide clamp adapted to releasably fit into the correspondingly formed concave or channeled face 21 of a juxtaposed rail end 22. The two railends 17 and 22 may be releasably interlocked so as to prevent relative endwise movement through the medium of the filler block or clamp extension 18a or-18. In the present instance the interlocking connection comprises a projection or lug `23 pinched or formed from the member 118 or 18a and a notch or recess 24: formed in the rail end 22.

Thus it will be seen that in joining the ends of the rails each rail end 17 may be tensioned or pressed inwardly to an extent sufficient to permit the lug 23 to clear the face 21`of rail end 22 and to spring into the recess 24 so asto become securelyseated therein.

Thus it will be seen that the filler section opposite rail, and the spring pressure of the *raily ends, which is outwardly in this case l .insures the lateral alinement of the adjoin- `ing rail ends. The rail ends 17'of onetrack section may be readily and quickly released from the rail ends 22 of the adjacent section merely by pressing inwardly one or both of the ends 17 sufficiently to withdraw the lugs 23 from the recesses 24 thereby permitting the rail ends 22 to be withdrawn from the opposed rail ends. It will he noted that the rail ends when joined in the fore`-l going manner will not accidentally become disconnected by one pair shifting upwardly out of engagement with the other due to the fact that the concave face 21 prevents any relative upward movement of the convex face of member 18a or 18.

It is to be understood that by describing in detail herein any particular form, structure, or arrangement7 it is not intended to limit the invention beyond the terms of the several claims or the requirements of the prior art.

Having thus explained the nature of my said invention and described a way of constructing and using the same, although without `attempting to set forth all of the forms in which it may be made, or all of the modes of its use, I claim:

1. In a toy railway a wire formed rail having a lengthwise extending concaved face.

2. In a toy railway a wire formed rail having a lengthwise extending channeled side face.

3. In a toy railway a wire formed rail having a pair of opposed longitudinally extending concaved faces.

4. In a toy railway a wire formed Arail having a pair of opposed convex faces and a pair of opposed concave faces.

5. In a toy railway a wire Jformed rail having a part of the metal thereof forced inwardly to form a lengthwise extending groove. i v

6. In a' toy railway a Wire formed rail having a part of the :metal thereof forced inwardly to form` a lengthwise extending groove, and a rail having a part cooperating with said groove. v

7. In a toy railway a wire formed rail having a part of the metal thereof forced inwardly to form a lengthwiseA extending groove. and a rail having a part releasably interlocked in said groove.

' 8. In a toy railway a pair of wire rails located end to end and having alined channeled faces, and means extending into said faces for releasably joining the-rails together. f

9. In atoy railway apairof wire rails located end to end, and a block secured to one rail and releasably connected to the other rail.

' 10. In a toy railway a pair ofwire rails located end to end, one of said rails having an extension,"andmeans for releasably connecting said extension to the other rail.

11. In a toy railway a pairlof wire rails located end to end, one of said rails having an extension, and means for releasably connectingsaid extension to the other rail, said means comprising a lug and a recess.

12. In a toy railway a pair of rails located end to end. and having alined channeled side faces, and means extending into said faces for releasably joining the rails together and for forming a spring joint.

13. In a toy railway a pair of wire rails located end to end, one of said rails having an extension forming with the other rail a releasable spring joint.

14. vIn -a toy railway a pair of wire rails located end to end and each rail having opposed inwardly rolled faces, means secured tothe rolled face of one rail and extending into the rolled face of the other rail for releasably connecting the same together.

15. In a toy railway a pair of wire rails having concave faces, and connecting means having a convex face extending thereinto.

16. In a toy railway, a cylindrical metal rail having a longitudinal side thereof pressed inwardly to increase the height of the rail.

17. In a toy railway7 a wire rail having a longitudinal side thereof pressed inwardly to increase the height of the rail.

18. In a toy railway, a pair of spaced connected wire rails having spaced clamping members secured thereto.

19. In a toy railway, a pair of wire rails located end to end and having grooved faces, and means for releasably joining said rails to forni a tension joint.

20. In a toy railway, a pair of rails located end to end and having grooved faces, one thereof having a sheet metal extension conforming to the shape of said grooved faces, and having the extended end portion constructed to yieldingly engage the grooved face of the adjacent rail when said pair of rails are joined together.

21. In a toy railway a wire rail having secured to an end thereof a sheet metal member projecting beyond the end of the rail.

Signed at Buffalo New York this 28th day of March 1923.

ALAN R. FERGUSSON. 

